and good day. i'm andrea mitchell in washington. from the midwest to the northeast people are digging out from the powerful winter blast that left almost two feet inform snow in parts of new england. it headed out to sea, but not before disrupting the lives of millions of people. bone-chilling temperatures, bad streets and delays at the busiest airports. we have full team coverage, and we begin with craig melvin in central park. >> reporter: a good day to you. this is a different scene in central park. different than it was two or three hours ago. take a look behind me, see people milling about in the park, a common sight in new york city. lots of dog walkers, joggers, a number of kids on sleds, a number of folks on skis as well.

but about two or three hours ago, you'd be hard-pressed to find even a steely new yorker. you would have been hard-pressed to see one of them out, because it was just that cold. a different kind of cold. it was about 15 degrees before the wind started to blow. the snow stopped, the winds, they have died down. but the temperatures, as you just indicated, that's going to be the story moving forward. it is right now about 20 degrees, and that's before the gusts start up. but the travel disruptions, those persist for many. one of this country's largest and busiest airports, jfk international, shut down after 6:00 a.m. and remained closed for four or five hours. laguardia, newark, both of those saw major cancellations as well. all of those airports are open now. amtrak told its customers to expect some delays.

you played some sound from new york city's new mayor, sworn in just a few moments after midnight on new year's day. this was his first major test. he held a news conference about two, two and a half hours ago. he would give his administration an a so far in how they've handled this thing. and lots of folks were watching him, specifically, very carefully. you may remember back when then-city advocate bill deblasio back in 2010, he was highly critical of michael bloomberg for their response to the major winter storm saying the snowplows and trucks didn't get to the outer boroughs as quickly as they should have. so far he seems to be getting -- based on folks we have talked to -- a good response to the

first major snowstorm of 2014. >> he has the sanitation and streets officials held over from the bloomberg years. he's got an experienced cabinet right now dealing with all the street clearing. but coming up it'll still be a big test as the ice continue this is weekend. what about the airports, when do we think they might reopen? >> reporter: jfk is reopened, all the major airports are back open for business. but as you know, it takes a while to catch up on the backlog of delayed fights, that backlog of cancelled flights as well. but some 2500 flights over the past 24 hours have been cancelled as a result of this monstrous storm. they shut down jfk this morning because there was no visible. the pilots and air traffic control couldn't see. they shut it down out of an abundance of caution. >> a beautiful central park.

with the schools off, people are enjoying the snow day. and now to massachusetts, one of the states hit hardest by the storm. and richmond lui from boston. >> reporter: good day to you. to bookend what craig melvin saying about the first challenge for the new york mayor, this is the final challenge for the boston mayor. good thing today, the difference between 12 hours ago and now, it's now a balmy, if i it say that, 12 degrees. it was about 2 degrees 12 hours ago. if you look behind me, a building you're familiar, the customs building now has sun upon it. and that means a lot of different things. come down the streets from the customs building, once the tallest in the country, the streets are now wet. and we have seen for the first time coming down these streets the salt trucks. earlier it was too cold to get

out here and put out salt. it wouldn't make any difference with the weather. and earlier this morning, we had the light, fluffy snow. that's gone. we have all of the cookie dough snow that's dirty. that's a good sign. it's warmer. you were talking about airports, logan international over my shoulder, they started to taxi about three hours ago. good sign. they also started to take off within the last two hours, andrea. >> richmond louis in boston. and one of the most important highways in long island was closed from midnight to this morning on orders from the governor. it's the long island expressway in new york. thanks for the help from the locals -- kristen, tell us whether the highway's now been cleared.

>> reporter: good afternoon, andrea, the sun is out, but it's not really doing anything to warm things up. still bitter, bitter cold temperatures. that's what caused the biggest problems. take a look, this is the snow, it's so light and powdery, it's so cold it's been difficult for them to get off of the roadways. they have been plowing here. this is the access road to the long island expressway, they have been plowing it, but not sticking together to get it off. it tends to blow back on. and also the salt they have been putting down doesn't work under 15 degrees, and it's so cold that it hasn't been melting the snow on the roadways. so we're beginning to see a little bit of black top, the long island expressway with a lot more cars. now you can see the black top and cars seem to be moving pretty well. things getting back to normal. but it's going to be some time before the secondary streets are clear out there. people being advised to stay in.

the other good news with snow this light and fluffy, not a lot of power outages. not as heavy on the trees, not knocking down the power lines. a little bit of good news, but it's going to be sometime as we go through today before things get back to normal. back to you. >> thanks so much to kristen in new york. along the l.i.e. there are abnormally cold temperatures. and joining me now is michaelman, professor of meteorology at penn state university. it is january, we should expect cold weather and snow and wind. it does seem like those temperatures especially in boston and chicago and some of the other big cities are colder than usual. what say you? >> well, that's right. this is winter. and somebody asked me the other day, you know, how can we reconcile the fact that we're

having cold conditions, record cold in some parts of the country with the fact that there's global warming. we have a technical term and we call it winter. you're going to have cold weather in winter. and the fact is, if you step back, and you look at say the last decade, and you look at all of the locations around the u.s., and you ask how often have we broken all-time records for heat versus cold? we have broken that at twice the rate. and in that, we see the fingerprint, global warm, of a human influence on climate. >> let's take a look going forward, what are you forecasting for the next couple of weeks and for february as well? >> well, what's interesting, right now, if you look at the configure ration of the jet stream, we're in what climate scientists call the negative phase of the north atlantic oscillation. it sounds very fancy. what it means is that the jet

stream is in a particular figuration that's giving us a very cold and stormy weather here in the eastern u.s. and that configuration will break down, and warmer conditions lie, you know, lie ahead. but there's also an interesting climate change connection there as well. because there has been some interesting recent scientific research that shows that the dramatic decrease in sea ice in the arctic over the past few decades, a decrease by 50% just in a matter of decades, may be influencing the jet stream, counterintuitively in a way that gives us the cold air outbreaks in the middle of winter. >> fascinating stuff. michaelman from penn state. and midway airport, this is a flier's worst nightmare. 30 planes stuck on the tarmac for hours after three days of snowfall caused cancellations

and delays. many southwest airlines flights were affected. the backup was late thursday night, arriving planes were stuck with nowhere to go because all of the gates were occupied. some passengers were on the planes for as long as four hours. >> four hours and four minutes on the tarmac, someone needs to be held accountable. >> it was a little restless. it was restless. >> there's no excuses. no excuses. over 1 million busi. if you have a business idea, we have a personalized legal solution that's right for you. with easy step-by-step guidance, we're here to help you turn your dream into a reality. start your business today with legalzoom. we're gonna be late. ♪ ♪

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based on the information i have right now, i give everyone an a for extraordinary effort and effectiveness. but that's at this hour and day,

i don't rest on any lawfulurels. we have a lot more to do. ask me the grade in a few hours. this is an hour to hour thing. >> the new new york mayor, bill de blasio, passing the test of any mayor, clearing the snow. and we have the contributor and new york times white house reporter jackie. thanks to both of you. first of all, let's look at the mayor's children. dante de blasio on his facebook, there was an early posting on facebook, where somebody said, bro, is there a high possibility school might be cancelled, and dante answered, i have no idea. old man winter will decide, but i'm trying to convince my dad. there you go, the early warnings on the school closings. chris. >> he's doing -- i think since

what we saw with katrina which was the last huge natural disaster, not to equate the two, but huge natural disaster that politicians were seen as struggling with from the democratics governor at the time and george w. bush. but the most important thing is to be present and almost ever-present. chris christie at the end of 2012, right before the election, was everywhere. bobby jindal, i remember during the conventions of 2012, bobby jindal was everywhere as the storm approached the gulf coast. i think he is taking that advice. which is better for people to see you, even if you don't have that much news to report, see that you're on the case and working on it, because for every person who's stuck, can't get out, it's cold, they want to know that their top elected official has his eyes on the prize. >> and jackie, the white house

released new background check regulations from the vice president's office doing something about guns. how effective could this be? trying to address the issue of people with mental health problems not having access to guns. >> right. and this all reflects the fact that the administration has not been able to get any legislation through congress given the opposition of even some democrats and the gun lobby in particular. and so in the past year, a year ago, the president in the wake of the newtown massacre had put out a list of 23 things, i think. and most of it was regulations, things they could do without legislation. and the president has said one of his biggest disappointments of 2013 was he couldn't get the legislation on background checks for gun buyers. today they've announced two more regulations that get to the issue of the connection between gun violation and mental

illness. and it came from the vice president's office, which joe biden has been in charge of the effort for the president. so it's the start of another year. they're trying to signal they're keeping this issue alive. they haven't given up. but essentially, the fact that these are regulations show that they continue to see no hope for legislation. >> exactly. now, what are the next things as the president is going to be coming back from vacation in hawaii next week, chris, what in particular is the big focus? do we think it's the income inequality and the unemployment compensation for long-term unemployed? and minimum wage i guess. >> i think so. his state of the union speech is i believe january 28th. we'll get a fuller outline of the agenda. yes, he made quite clear in speeches before at the end of 2013 i should say, where he's headed, increase inequality. i think that's the fight over

unemployment insurance, extending the benefits, we know harry reid is going for a procedural vote in the next week. and raising the minimum wage will be part and parcel. and the president has to be encouraged by the signs out of john boehner's office with immigration reform. i don't think there's a comprehensive package like in the senate, but the president sees a possibility of working with the house to find ways to pass that. i think those will be the big three. obviously you have the debt ceiling, passing the farm bill. still a lot of other things out there, but in terms of pro active looking forward, those are the three. >> and jackie, looking forward to the state of the union, which stone do you think the president is planning to strike? going to be the more liberal appeal to the place with the mayor's inaugural address or trying to talk about conciliation and expanding on

the agreement that we saw between democrats and republicans on the small budget deal right before the break? >> i think president obama sometime ago crossed that line that he was trying to walk between, you know, not being too partisan and being more conciliatory. he's been much more forceful and left-leaning. and long before bill de blasio appeared on the scene, the president gave speeches since 2005 when he entered the senate on this issue of increase inequality. and the inequality and opportunity for upward mobility in this country, and drawing a line through the 20th century to the 21st. from theodore roosevelt, a republican, even abraham lincoln, a republican, to the president. he's going to use this state of the union speech to be one in the line of those speeches. and it's a midterm election

year. and so encourage the base. and looking forward, trying to make something positive after what he concedes was not a great year in 2013, it's going to be sort of maintenance. not new things, but just make the older things work. the health care law and on the foreign policy front, there's a range of issues that we have the afghan drawdown this year. even as iraq is exploding and the al-qaeda showing new inroads there. and the syrian civil war is just infecting the entire region and middle east peace talks. there's a lot of maintenance to do this year as opposed to new initiatives. >> indeed. and we're going to be talking about all of those foreign policy challenges in just a few moments. correct the record, there was a typo, the state of the union speech is january 28th.

>> a little nervous there, andrea. >> mark your calendar. thanks so much. and down in havana, those classic cars that cubans have been famous for rebuilding would be replaced, only for those with a lot of cash. they will be permitted to purchase the cars on the open market. it will take a while. the least expensive new car is a 2013 pugeot for about $91,000. the average income in cuba, about $22 a month. coming up, millions are snowed in today, but winter's wrath is only getting started. we'll have the latest on the arctic blast to come, and the sub zero temps that could be heading your way this weekend. ♪ [ cellphone rings ] hello? [ male announcer ] over 12,000 financial advisors.

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than secretary kerry on this issue. but at the same time we here are very serious and we have genuine concerns on the part of the prime minister. we take those into consideration. >> we have to put this in the context of the world at large, and i just fear that 2014 could be a year of utter disaster in the region. >> john mccain and lindsey graham, the two senators and critics of the middle east negotiations in israel to bolster prime minister netanyahu. perhaps just as john kerry is there on the round of diplomacy. he's now in the west bank, meeting with the palestinian president. and joining me now is former california congresswoman, president and nicolas burns, state department spokesman.

nick, if you were the spokesman of the state department and the secretary of state on his second visit to jerusalem and the west bank and try to come up with a framework agreement, and your two most prominent critics from the senate took the side of the prime minister of israel, what would you think? >> it's obviously just politics in washington. it's the way the foreign policy -- senator mccain and graham made good points, but i think secretary kerry is doing the right thing. this issue, the israelen/palestinian issue now in the 66th year without peace, is the core issue. it's vital. so for the american secretary of state spending a lot of time, making his tenth visit, it's reasonable. you cannot crowd out the other big issues in the middle east. we have seen iraq falling apart, tremendous problems, and the

nuclear problems ahead of us, and the syrian civil war with 9 million syrians inside and outside of the country homeless. it's an important problem for the future of the region. >> now over critics have been saying the secretary is focusing too much on a peripheral injury and should be focused on syria, the shooting war. >> we should be focused on syria. it's important not just to celebrate. which we should celebrate the fact that chemical weapons are being removed if the country, but there are over 100,000 people dead, most of them innocent civilians in the long-lasting civil war. and our government should be paying more attention. as to john kerry, i understand that lindsey graham has a tough primary, but i think being the mouthpiece for the prime minister of israel while our secretary of state is there is not smart.

and netanyahu has challennnels him, public or private, how well-intended or, however, focussed on politics, should not have happened today. >> you mentioned the iran negotiations. and it seems that the administration walled off iran's issues with hezbollah and other issues to focus on the nuclear agreement. a very big deal, obviously. but at the same time that rouhani seems to have control of the nuclear agenda, the hard liners at the revolutionary guards are supporting hezbollah, and had a terrible assassination a week ago. do you think it's important not to link the issues and force iran to respond on both fronts? >> the issues have to be linked. we have to judge iran on what

it's doing in the region, in lebanon and syria and iraq, those are against american interests. it's fair game if we're talking to the iranians to raise the issues, and to make progress on one area, make progress on others. should be linked. but i'm not sure it's just the united states that doesn't want to link the issues, it's the iranian government that doesn't. because rouhanrouhani, the prim minister and the foreign minister are on the left, if there is a left, facing down the hard liners in iran who are running these aggressive policies in the middle east. i'm not sure that the irans have the wherewithal and the ability to talk about these issues with the united states. that's the problem in this relationship. >> now let me switch gears in the time we have left, and ask about edward snowden. jane, you were a prominent member of the intelligence committee in the house. and the new york times said he

should be granted clemency or a plea bargain, and we're waiting to hear how he responds. what do you think about the new york times, arguably the most prominent newspaper in our country taking the stand? >> they have the right to editorialize however they want, but i degree. plea bargains are part of the prosecution. so for bargaining with what happens is appropriate. but granting him clemency for the most serious national security leak in our history i think should be out of bounds. and just a couple of points here, first of all, we don't know whether his data which is reported at 1.7 million pieces of whatever pieces of paper or transactions with we don't know if that's exploited by china or russia, come poliwith others.

but as mike said, if he gets away with this, it's a permission slip to steal big pip applaud the public debate about what we should be doing. >> it wouldn't have happened without him. >> it did happen to some extent in congress. i was there in 2008. it's happening on a bigger stage. that's a good thing. and i do think foreign governments have a right to be highly annoyed to the extent that personal conversations are listened to. that's not part of the post-9/11 framework. that's an executive framework that existed before. and we should adopt the recommendations of the review committee that president obama had. but what happens to snowden sets an example. he was not a whistle-blower. >> nick, you were in government for so many years. this debate is a long overdue debate, too much is classified, and too much has been done in the name of the american people without people knowing.

what about what snowden has precipitated here? >> i degree with president obama. he says we need a national debate. there's too much that's classified. we need more transparency. but for the new york times to say he should be given clemency. i was shocked by the editorial and by the certitude. here's someone who damaged the national security of the united states. betrayed the trust, and fled to two countries, china and russia. he didn't stand his ground and argue his point like people have done in the past. i'm opposed to what the new york times is advocating. >> nick burns, jane harmon. and we have yet to hear a full response from edward snowden. vladimir putin is in sochi trying to show the world that the olympic games will be all good. he strapped on skis for a test

run down the slopes, and checked out preparations for the opening and closing ceremonies. the games start in 34 days. head up the east coast, and boston is digging out from the first nor'easter of the year. >> reporter: i'm ron mott in boston, the sun came out after what seems like 24, 25 hours of straight snowfall. 12 inches here in the city, twice as much on the north shore, and coastal flooding on the south shore. a lot to do with the snowstorm. they didn't have much competition to keep the roads clear, so downtown is clear, a lot of folks have a three-day weekend. they have work to do at home to get the snow off the sidewalks. the kids are loving this, most school districts closed. we're expecting temperatures in the single digits in terms of

wind chill, we may warm up to the teens and 20s by sunday before another weather system comes in. a lot of fun in boston. back to you. >> from the weather channel, from the big dig in boston. stay with us. plus presents the cold truth. [ coughs, sneezes ] [ sniffles ] i have a big meeting when we land, but i am so stuffed up, i can't rest. [ male announcer ] truth is, nyquil cold and flu liquid gels don't unstuff your nose. they don't? [ male announcer ] nope. they don't have a decongestant. really? [ male announcer ] really. alka seltzer plus night fights your worst cold symptoms, plus has a fast-acting decongestant to relieve your stuffy nose. [ inhales deeply ] alka seltzer plus. oh. what a relief it is. [ male announcer ] can't find theraflu, try alka seltzer plus for fast liquid cold and flu relief. [ male announcer ] when you wear dentures you may not know it, but your mouth is under attack. food particles infiltrate and bacteria proliferate. ♪

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and we have more four on nor'easter that blanketed the northeast. and wind chill advisories for several counties in massachusetts until tomorrow morning. we have mike seidel from snowy boston. mike, you have been out all night in the weather. is it warming up at all? i see a little bit of sun. >> reporter: yeah, the sun is out. but in january, you can't feel it, but psychologically, it has warmed up. it's up to 12 degrees, and the wind chill that was 20 below is

up to 4. big pile of snow, powdery, you throw it up, and see what happens. the wind backed off, not the 40 mile per hour wind gusts. the streets are open. let me go down the file, this is powder. this is about as cold as you'll see a snowstorm in the northeast. >> looks like fun. >> reporter: it was. but usually it's sloppy and slushy. it was snowing with temperatures of 3 degrees. the boston hasher skating rink, they're just about done. they have been digging it out, sn throwing the snow in the bobcat, and take the bobcat. he'll be over here in 15, 20 seconds. he's going to back up here, watch this. this is -- these are the professionals up here. they're going to bring this big pile of snow on the bobcat, he's going to dump it on the pile. and it's not going to melt until sunday. there we go, look at that. boom, baby.

oh, and look, right into my face. oh, gosh. that'll wake you up. >> above and beyond. >> reporter: as far as the snow goes, officially at logan, 15.1, north shore, a couple feet up in the county. and tomorrow morning, 4 below in logan, ties the record. and a big warmup sunday and monday. the next storm to the west of the mountains. bring warm air into new york and boston and philadelphia. what falls next will be rain. but the next air mass that comes down the pike into the midwest, the coldest in 20 years, chicago's high on monday, 12 below zero, ties the all-time record low. many areas set the records. and after the big warm up, back into the deep freeze on tuesday and wednesday. and temperatures here in new york will be much like they are today. we'll fall out quickly and

freeze right back up. but a big storm, a lot of powder. and now we move on. still waiting to hear planes go out of logan. airlines suspended operations at 8:30. and that was a good thing. the crews could clean up the snow. still haven't heard anything taking off. get things up and running, and tomorrow, no cancellations. it's a really good day for flying around the country. back to you from boston. >> thank you mike seidel for it all. thanks so much. and we asked you to tweet us your pictures @andrea mitchell reports. it's a hot chocolate kind of day. and a backyard in delaware. and this picture out of brooklyn, new york. cashew finding shelter in the backyard dog house so cold, but so cute. and we'll bring you the latest as the east digs out from the

first major winter snowstorm. stay with us.   

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♪ turning to politics, some of the biggest political battles in 2014 will be for state houses across the country. in texas, state senator wendy davis is hoping to use momentum from the filibuster last june to become the first democratic governor in two decades. and erica joins me now. she has primary opposition and would be facing the republican attorney general, greg abbott if she wins the primary in march. what are her chances right now? >> i think she'll face him in march, the likely scenario. and from polling from a nine to ten point split, but there's nine months of campaigning.

and it's a more robust shot than a lot of democrats lately. >> a lot of interest in her nationally. she's been here, the dnc encouraged her to run. they see her as a future star based on the performance and the woman's issue. and the fifth circuit court of appeals is going to hear that case on monday. >> starting monday. >> on the abortion restrictions, the severe restrictions that she had been filibustering against. a lot of attention to that trial? >> yes. and to the issue in general. what we saw in the summer was a democrat becoming a star in real time. people were tuning in, watching it on live streams, in person here in texas. that galvanized a lot of interest from democratic voters who felt there wasn't a strong challenge to the republicans who have held control in the state for a long time. >> what about on the republican

side? what's greg abbott's thrust? is this an obamacare election as far as the republicans are concerned? >> it's an obama election for the republicans. running against obama or against the national democrats generally. texas democrats are more conservative on fiscal issues. the advantage of davis run, it's helped him not have to play too far to the right in the primary, a lot of others have to do, all the action is for the races in the primary rather than the general. >> and it's an all-female ticket on the democratic side, at least going into the primary. >> that's right, there's a candidate for lieutenant governor, the second official in the state. the state senator from san antonio who's been in the state senate for quite a while. she joined the race about a month ago i think. >> so what about women being activated by the abortion debate? do you see a lot of women being

more interested in this race than they have been in the past? >> you know, i think so. it's an interesting issue. if you look at the bill itself, the components, and the regulations that have taken effect, some of the regulations you could find majority support for in texas, but there's an aspect in which process matters, right? this became a huge issue, a public issue, and it wasn't a pressing issue before the filibuster made it one. i think a lot of texans, women and men alike were put off by the fact that republicans advanced this issue for political purposes. >> erica from texas monthly. thank you very much for being with us today. >> thank you. >> and coming up, a look ahead at weekend weather, including the bitter nfl while card matchups with potential sub zero temperatures. and check out next week's new yorker coverage. at least the polar bears can enjoy the new york snow.

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just when you thought all of this snow was enough to contend with, well, forecasters are saying there's another arctic blast on the horizon. monday's high, a balmy minus 8 degrees. >> that was kevin tibbles, minus 8 degrees in chicago. the weather will make headlines in the next 24 hours. let's see how americans are holding up in one final location. john yang is live for us in honolulu. john, are you excited to get back to chicago weather on monday? >> reporter: oh, hi, andrea, how are you? >> just fine. >> it's warm in the studio. john yang -- you will pay for this when you go back to chicago. >> reporter: my heart goes out to kevin tibbles, i've been thinking about him and all the work he's been doing. >> it's hard duty covering the president's golf game, isn't it?

>> reporter: well, the president is always the president no matter where he goes. he's working. and the white house unit is always the white house unit wherever he goes. still working hard and still covering what he's doing and it is now 68 degrees here in honolulu. it is 12 back in home where i work in chicago where i'm based in chicago. i got an e-mail earlier from a colleague said he had 14 inches of snow. we were going to measure the sand depth to see how it compared but we haven't gotten down to it yet. >> the closest president will get to ice is shaved ice when he takes the girls out for a shaved ice treat. >> reporter: exactly. he was there a couple of days ago. >> let's talk about football for a second. you're going to return to some wicked weather and i'm sorry about your bears for this home team here in washington. let's look at the wild card

weekend. we've got indianapolis, the blackout has been lifted because of a kind of intervention of a local company that bought the remaining 1200 tickets and distributing them to military families, so you've got first of all the chiefs playing in indianapolis against the colts. and that's 4:35 on saturday eastern time. then at 8:10, the saints versus the eagles in philly. one of the things you may not be aware of out there in sunny honolulu, the philadelphia police are addressing saints hurts and hats to go undercover to protect saints fans from the philadelphia fans. >> a decoy operation. you're talking about the blackout rule. the only city now that is still threatened with the blackout is cincinnati. kroger, which is a big grocery

chain in the midwest head quartered bought a bunch of tickets for military families but not enough to lift the blackout. they have a few more hours to try to do that. the fcc is actually talking about modifying the blackout rule. it's been in effect for about 40 years now. i think that would make nfl fans very happy, not so much maybe the owners if the fcc did look at that rule. >> and we've got on sunday the chargers versus the bengals and the niners versus the packers and 49ers will have to play in snowy cold green bay. so there's a lot of weather as well as football this weekend. enjoy honolulu, don't worry about your friends and kevin tibbles in chicago and buds back home. have a good time. >> reporter: i'm thinking of you, andrea. >> thanks so much. >> cheers. >> that does it for us for this new year's week edition of "andrea mitchell reports."

my colleague has a look at what's next on "news nation." >> hi, andrea, coming up on "news nation," the brutal chill after the storm. the snow is moving out but forecasters say potentially deadly cold weather is moving in. chicago could get hit -- out of california, the hospital declared a 13-year-old girl brain dead is now in federal court. could an end be near to this heartbreaking case? a super computer, the nsa reportedly is spending millions to develop a computer with codes that protect everything from banking to medical records. [ male announcer ] alka seltzer plus presents the cold truth. [ coughs, sneezes ] [ sniffles ] i have a big meeting when we land, but i am so stuffed up, i can't rest. [ male announcer ] truth is, nyquil cold and flu liquid gels don't unstuff your nose. they don't? [ male announcer ] nope. they don't have a decongestant. really? [ male announcer ] really. alka seltzer plus night fights

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[ cellphones beeping ] ♪ [ cellphone rings ] hello? [ male announcer ] over 12,000 financial advisors. good, good. good. over $700 billion dollars in assets under care. let me just put this away. [ male announcer ] how did edward jones get so big? could you teach our kids that trick? [ male announcer ] by not acting that way. ok, last quarter... [ male announcer ] it's how edward jones makes sense of investing. ♪ the "news nation" is following the brutal chill on the way for millions of americans from the midwest to

new england as the massive deadly winter storm winds down. look at this composite image showing how much was blanketed by the storm. much of the snow has tapered off but now that the snow that fell isn't melting any time soon, some cities set to see temperatures hit historic lows. the national weather service warns the dangerously cold temperatures could drive the windchill to as low as negative 55 degrees in the northern plains. chicago could come close to breaking its record low. so far nine deaths are being blamed on the storm according to the associated press. most due to the treacherous road conditions. massive storm left 2 feet of snow in massachusetts and $18 inch in upstate new york. boston saw about 9 inches and new york city about 8 inches and philadelphia 5 to 8 and 2 inches fell in our nation's capital. the busiest airports are back open and scrambling to handle the backlog of 2,000 flights

cancelled and more than 3,000 delayed flights. this look at flight aware's misery map shows they have a long way to go and it's not sitting well with frustrated passengers. >> we came from salt lake city. we were supposed to fly out at 12:00. they said all but two vegas and albany new york, was all canceled. >> the plane was delayed out of san diego about three hours. then they made good time getting here. we landed nicely and everything. good landing. then we just sat on the runway on the tarmac, i guess you call it, for approximately three and a half, almost four hours. >> meanwhile, new york and new jersey remain under a state of emergency and governors in both states are urging residents to stay at home. nbc's craig melvin picks up the coverage from central park.